


Crimson

by Siera_Knightwalker



Category: Hunter X Hunter
Genre: BAMF!Killua, BAMF!OC, Everyone will be badass, F/M, Gen, OC is Kurata, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-06-05
Updated: 2018-06-08
Packaged: 2019-05-18 14:05:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 6,458
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14854211
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Siera_Knightwalker/pseuds/Siera_Knightwalker
Summary: Kaname is a Kurata. A kurata who survived the massacre of the clan by luck or by the will of her parents' killer. She doesn't know but that won't stop her from killing that bitch. The Spiders would pay.





	1. Prologue

Blood. The color and the scent of blood was something she could no longer rid herself of. Lying in the river of blood of her family, she no longer cared to. She felt like the metallic scent of blood would permeate ever part of her and she would never be able to differentiate between her scent and it again. She didn't dare leave her house. She didn't dare to leave the warm- coldcoldcold- comfort of her parent's body. The died to make sure she would live. Even without their beautiful eyes, they continued to gaze at her with love and she could no longer look away.

She had somehow stayed hidden beneath her laundry of clothes that her mother had thrown on her.

"Don't move. Don't move. Please. Just don't move."

Her mother had pushed her away, looking like she had hastily kept a basket of laundry aside to check on the screams that kept coming from outside. Her father had momentarily gone out and come inside moments later, eyeless and dropped to the floor.

A woman had come in after him, licking the blood- redredred- from her hands before smiling eerily. She slowly walked to her mother, tauntingly and cut out her tongue. She tortured her slowly and even after her screams faded into nothing, they continued to ring in her ear. She felt absolutely nothing. She would probably be the next to die but she didn't care. It had been an hour or so of torture for her mother until her eyes turned the beautiful crimson as her father.

Her eyes had never turned crimson before.

She stayed still, barely breathing. The hours passed by and she still remained. When the screams finally stopped, she climbed out. Her mother lay still on the ground near her. Her hand had fallen on top of her. She patted her mother's head.

"You can sleep, mama." Her voice cracked like she had been screaming or hadn't spoken for weeks. Her mind flashed back to the moment she saw the monster's back.

The spider themed tattoo on her back.

Number 4.

She would kill her. She would make her bleed. Make her pay. Her blood for every single person she killed. She would torture her-

She stumbled over someone and fell on the river of blood that flowed through their clan. The sun was setting beautifully and she couldn't stand the sight of it. Her hands were dyed red and she stood back up. She had no place to go now. She walked into the forest she had always been forbidden from, and she kept walking.

There was nowhere to go.

Nowhere to return to.

Nowhere to call home.


	2. Hunter Exam Begins!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kaname meets the boys!

_Five years later_

“Candidate No. 347.”

The year’s Hunter Exams was taking place in Zaban City and Kaname was lucky enough to be close by. Her gut told her it would be important to attend that year’s hunter exam and she had been planning for it for some time anyway. Hunter license was too important to not get.

The first stage simply consisted of people running then climbing stairs. Some people failed, but most of them just lagged behind. She just kept near the middle. Some idiotic fat guy kept trying to give her some juice or something but when she ignored him, he just panted and hung back. Some people were really stupid. Idiotic people don’t pass the hunter exam. Nor do normal people, and even if they do, it’s very rarely.

There were a couple people her age running near the back but they came to the front by the end of it.

The examiner was replaced by some mimic monkey thing then Hisoka, candidate number. 44, just got annoyed and threw cards at both. The real examiner caught the card and kind of scolded the most threatening examinee there. She had heard about him almost killing the examiner the last time he took a test. He was amoral too, which wasn’t really surprising. Most of the people in the world, especially people who are Hunters are amoral. Killing creatures or people with sentience are routine for many. Not to mention assassins.

It was kind of sad, Kaname thought. But who was she to judge? She was the exact same. She was more than willing to kill people who got in her way. She only cared about people who she was close to. She only had 2 people she was willing to give her life to save, but honestly, they were both ridiculously strong and didn’t need her to sacrifice her life for them.

She was kind of glad for that. Kaname only had one goal in her life and she really wanted to live long enough to see it through.

Past all the mist where Hisoka seemed to be testing quite a few people, she found the site of the next exam. She hunted both the boar and the fish, tried to compile both into something edible and was rather doubtful she succeeded, but everyone passed the first part and everyone failed the second part. She wasn’t exactly a great cook, she could do the boar well enough but she wasn’t a master of sushi making. She thought rice was needed but apparently not. She had vague memories of sushi. It wasn’t exactly something a normal person found in their daily meal course.

Their second exam was replaced by a ‘catch the egg’ game by Chairman Netero. She stayed back to observe the timing and strength of wind before jumping. The freefall was fun and the egg was easy to get after that. They used the wind to get back up again. She was- honest to god- grinning. She was a bit of an adrenaline junkie, after all.

After that, Chairman Netero seemed to take quiet interest in the boy with black, spiky hair. The old man had tried to invite her as well but she refused on principal. She had no desire to get involved with kids her age. They would only end up dying when she inevitably went to hunt down the Phantom Troupe. But despite herself, she found herself getting interested in the duo. The silvette smelt of old blood, a familiar scent to her. He was similar to her. He killed too. But the other boy had a strange charisma in his every action. It was intriguing.

The silvette would also gaze back at her, probably at her stink of blood. She had killed quite a few people. The Phantom Troupe would only get to experience the best of her skills, after all.

Chairman Netero kept an eye on each of the group of four- Kurapika, Leorio, Killua and Gon- with amusement and consideration. He was also curious about her but probably didn’t care to approach her. She wasn’t sure if she was relieved or envious. To receive the consideration of the Chairman of the Hunter Association was a great thing but she didn’t exactly want the spotlight that much. She wasn’t even sure she would survive the Phantom Troupe.

Kaname was bothered by the blonde’s appearance. He seemed familiar, for some reason. His clothes were ridiculously familiar too. Had she seen him somewhere? It was like an itch at the back of her head. She just wasn’t sure why he felt so familiar.

Their third test was to go through Trick Tower, a prison for criminals. Needless to say, many people would be dying, and the enemies would be strong. So obviously, she stumbled on the _one path_ that led to joining up with the odd group of four.

“Hello! I’m Gon. This is Killua, Leorio and Kurapika. Are you okay?” Her eye twitched as she lay on the floor of the room.

“-just glad it isn’t anyone like Tonpa,” the old guy muttered. The blonde just nodded and smiled at her. She self consciously tucked her brown hair behind her ear and smiled.

“Hello, my name is Kaname.” Their clan had strictly disallowed anyone from mentioning their clan. Their eyes were a rare specimen after all. “It’s nice to meet you all.”

“Hey, let’s be friends!” Gon said brightly. Killua followed along with Gon. It was kind of embarrassing how her face brightened before she had even said anything. Killua definitely found it funny cause he started laughing. She huffed.

“Sure, sure. Laugh it up. I assume you’re a package deal?” Killua looked surprised but agreeable. It was cute. He wanted friends too.

Before he could say anything in reply, the third phase examiner, Lippo explains the rules of ‘The Path of Majority’. It was pretty simple, overall. The atmosphere between them was casual and lighthearted. She found herself laughing and joining in.

Killua would tease Leorio of being old and he would exclaim back that he wasn’t. Then everyone started laughing at _her_ shocked face. The guy had to be 20 or something, at least, right? But apparently, he wasn’t. That was really surprising. Leorio just grumbled.

She slowly relaxed in their company, telling them small things about her being an orphan and being helped by a hunter for a month or so. Then this other hunter who would occasionally drop by to check up on her and teach her small things. She spent most of her time in the wild, doing small jobs to get money. She had been close by when she heard about the Hunter Exam and decided to take it.

“So this is your first time too?” Gon asked curiously. She smiled back reflexively.

“Yeah. I was planning to take it last year but the hunter guy decided to drop by and delayed me a lot, so I just decided to take it the next year.” She frowned in irritation. They were both kinda assholes. But they cared, and she was just grateful for that.

“Who were they?” Killua asked bluntly. She was wondering when they would. But they probably assumed she wanted to keep it a secret for some reason or other. Well, they weren’t wrong exactly. She didn’t want it getting out that hunters helped her train or she would be tested by Hisoka or killed by their enemies. She looked at them briefly before dismissing her worries. They didn’t seem to have any kind of vengeance against good hunters.

“Well, the guy who helped me out was Ging and his friend who kept dropping by is Kite. I only saw Ging once, but he helped me out a lot. I really owe the guy. Kite was just an annoying shit who kept kicking my ass around every time he came around. But he also helped-” She stopped when she didn’t see everyone walking with her.

Everyone was staring at Gon, and then her. Did she say something insulting? Did Gon actually have some kind of issue with Ging or Kite?

“Ging Freeces?” Gon’s eyes were wide and he was smiling widely. She stopped the reflexive smile before nodding slowly.

“Yeah, that’s him.” Gon’s grin seemed to widen and she shot a confused look at Killua, then Kurapika and Leorio, who were also smiling.

“That’s my dad!” She nodded before pausing and staring at him with wide eyes. She opened her mouth before closing it. Looked at him for a second before turning and banging her head on the wall.

Thud. Thud. Thud.

“Ow.” She thud against Leorio’s hand and Kurapika pulled her back from the wall.

“I’m so stupid!” She cried out. “Of course, you’re his son. You guys look so alike!” She growled in irritation. _Stupid. Stupid. Stupid._

“Why didn’t I notice that before?!” Killua snickered.

“Poor observation skills?” Her eye twitched, but he wasn’t exactly wrong.

“Ugh!” She clenched her fist in front of her face but Killua danced away. She huffed but didn’t follow. She looked at Gon and scratched her cheek.

“I wasn’t with him for long but I could tell you about my time with him?” Gon immediately nodded, still grinning. “But first, the exam.”

“Okay!”

They reached the next choice and finally reached the arena with the prisoners they would probably be fighting. All five were hooded and deadly.

“The applicants are here. Unlock my handcuffs.” A deep voice spoke up. His handcuffs fell. “There we go.”

He came to the light showing that he was muscled and ripped. Her eyes narrowed. He seemed moderately strong and smart. Leorio would be eaten alive. Gon was a maybe. Kurapika was probable. Killua would be the best bet. He would end it fast.

“Gentlemen and lady, let me explain. You probably already know this that some of the criminals of the Trick Tower are standing before you.” A voice echoed in through the arena.

“These are prisoners?” Kurapika’s eyes focused on the enemies with a slight frown.

“Not just prisoners. The Hunter Committee has officially hired them as examiners. In this phase, you’ll be fighting against all five of them. The fights will be one-on-one with each person fighting only once. Use any style you like. There will be no draws. To be declared winner, your opponent must admit defeat.” The examiner of the phase explained. He sounded like he was watching a show…which probably wasn’t far off the mark. Hunters were strong beyond measure. All these fights must seem like child play.

“You can decide which one of you should go first, and this is majority rule, which means you need to secure 3 wins to pass.” The first opponent spoke up again.

“I’m getting real tired of this.” Leorio sighed, annoyed, but put his suitcase down.

“Meh. Sounds pretty straightforward to me.” Killua responded casually. The rules were simple.

“Well, the fights will be anything but. For every hour the prisoners keep you occupied here, their sentences will be reduced by one year. In other words, their goal in this phase is to literally buy time.”

“I get it. We’re on the clock, and if we don’t get out of here by 72 hours, we fail. So as you’re fighting, remember, time is of the essence.” She frowned. Wasn’t 72 hours more than enough time to cross the tower?

“Okay, I’m fighting whoever’s first. So who’s it gonna be?” The prisoners’ spokesperson said.

“Now what? He said to fight however we want.” Killua looked to Kurapika for assistance. It was the right choice though, Kurapika was at least a smart fighter. He would be good for leadership roles. He was charismatic in his own way too. “I’m guessing that means anything goes.”

“Everybody, be careful. No telling how this will go.”

“Without knowing what’s up their sleeve, there’s far too much at stake.” Kurapika said under his breath. “Given that, I’ll-”

“Okay, you guys are being too dramatic.” They looked at her, and suddenly the nervous tension was eased. She rolled her eyes. “It’s pretty simple. We need 3 wins and we need to do it in the shortest possible time. So I suggest Killua goes first.” Killua looked a bit surprised, but Gon had a go-with-the-flow attitude. Kurapika frowned and Leorio looked like she was asking him to sacrifice his newborn.

“But he’s just a kid!” Leorio protested. For a moment, she was slightly confused. What did that have to do with anything? Then she realized. He was _normal_. No fighting prodigy, or too traumatic a past or something that made him fulfill his potential.

“Oh Leorio.” She shook her head in pity. “He’s probably the strongest among us right now. I’m not all that sure I’d be able to defeat him, and I was trained by Hunters.” Well, that wasn’t entirely wrong. If she went all out, she could defeat him. But then again, if she went all out, she could defeat a lot of strong people but then she’d be in coma or something.

Leorio looked kind of dumbfounded and frustrated. She suppressed a smile. Leorio was probably the most innocent of their group.

“End it fast.” She looked at Killua seriously. “We don’t want them to waste our time.” Killua nodded and left his skateboard there. A path extended from their side to the arena.

They decided on a death match while Leorio and Kurapika were protesting. Killua was just uncaring, though slightly excited.

From the start, Killua rushed to him and before he could move to jump away, Killua was there. A single clean blow through the chest, and the opponent died. The blow was precise and professional. The blood was like an after-effect. Just like _that day._

He looked like he enjoyed holding his heart and taunting him. Kaname avoided looking at them, her heart beating fast, adrenaline running through her veins-

No. She didn’t want to kill anyone here. She subdued her panic and bloodlust under a calm façade and hoped that no one noticed.

She tuned into the conversation in time to hear that Killua actually came from a family of assassins- the Zoldycks. Her lips twitched up. These people _were_ extraordinary. Perhaps they wouldn’t just die if she went after the Troupe.

If their benchmark for power was Killua…they could actually be worth it. She zipped open her side bag and when Killua came back, she snapped a picture of him beside a surprised Gon, Kurapika and Leorio, who all just happened to be in the picture.

“What was that for?” Gon cocked his head. She smirked.

“Didn’t you know? The picture of a Zoldyck is worth billions of jenny.” Leorio gaped, while Kurapika smiled like he knew what she had just done.

“You just wanted a picture of us, didn’t you?” Kurapika spoke up before Leorio could ruin the moment.

“Don’t make it sound so creepy!” They were a group she met barely an hour ago.

“You didn’t say no.” She felt heat creep up her face and she scratched her cheek before looking away. “Let’s check out the competition for the next match!”

Gon smiled widely. Killua also has a small smile. Leorio cheerfully ruffled her hair. The previous tension at Killua’s reveal was gone, and she really felt happy with the group of four she met barely an hour ago, in the middle of the Hunter Exam, probably inches from death.


	3. Exam continues, with friends and paranoia!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> More Killua/Kana interaction!

The digital ‘0’ over them became ‘1’ and the first competitor’s body was promptly thrown off the edge. The prisoners were taking them a bit more seriously.

“That probably wasn’t a good idea.” Leorio whispered to her and Kurapika looked uncertain as well. Kaname shrugged.

“Honestly, we’ll be set if one of you three get a single win. I have a move that I can use if I have to but I’ll probably be knocked out for a while. When we get 2 wins, I’ll go.” Killua looked assessing but all of them calmed down, even if Leorio looked worried. For a second she wondered what she had done to earn that trust.

“I’ll go next!” Gon said with a determined smile. “If you both are participating, I want to too!” She smiled at him. So simple minded.

In response, a thin guy came out. In the arena, the guy told Gon that he wasn’t a fighter but they could settle the fight with candles. The first one whose fire goes out loses. With that settled, they discussed which candle Gon wanted and the opponent would get the opposite one.

At first they argued which one would be tampered with- the longer one or the shorter one. Kurapika kept his theories turning round and round. She just rolled her eyes. Kurapika was just complicating it for himself.

Gon chose the longer one and when it started, the fire flared bright and big, burning through the wax easily. Gon and his opponent were stuck in their places due to the strong wind from all around the arena.

“Gon chose the right one. His opponent probably tampered both types of candles, keeping spare of both on him.” Kurapika and Leorio looked slightly startled at not having thought of that but agreed soon enough.

“Yes, but he’s going to lose if it goes on like this!” Leorio protested.

Gon kept his candle to the floor, before running to his opponent and blowing his candle out.

“I win.” The other guy was stunned at the simplicity of the response, and just like that, they got their second win.

“You were saying?” She smirked at Leorio. He just grumbled.

“Okay, so I keep underestimating you guys.”

“Damn right. But the next guy will be tough. They’ll want a win so they’ll be desperate enough to send out their strongest fighter.” She frowned. “If, for some reason, I lose, Kurapika should get the next guy. That one should be easy picking.”

“Are you sure you don’t want me to go next?” Kurapika said. She smiled kindly at him. He really was a nice guy.

“Nah. I’ll be fine.” She massaged her neck muscles, slowly relaxing. Her opponent was someone who was still in manacles. He punched a guy into a wall and tore through the wall like paper. He was physically stronger than the first guy but didn’t seem as clinical. He wouldn’t show her mercy just because she’s a young girl.

“Death match?” She looked at him and smiled.

It wasn’t kind.

The second the match started, she dropped her limiters and landed on his shoulders, throwing him off his feet and twisting his neck before he could get his hands on her legs. She jumped away, steady and wary. He didn’t show any miraculous technique to revive back to life or anything. She shrugged.

“Looks like the guy’s dead.” The prisoners looked pale and surprised. No one questioned her and she went back to the others. Leorio and Kurapika looked surprised and uneasy, suddenly remembering that Killua was a killer too. Kurapika had his neutral face back on but Leorio seemed very uncertain about how to act.

“What? It was the fastest way. If I gave him time to recover or didn’t go for the kill, what do you think would happen? I’d be wasting time. We don’t need to waste time uselessly now.” They accepted that, but still seemed unsettled by how easily she could kill. She wasn’t from an assassin’s family or something, so it just ended up unsettling them more than Killua’s actions did.

-x-

Gates were passed, choices were made and paths were taken. They ran most the way down and reached after the third person there. Hisoka’s eyes instantly focused on Gon, and then her. She suppressed a giddy smile, because even though Hisoka was scary as all hell, she wanted to fight him. She had no plans to die though, so didn’t. Kite had beaten a healthy survival instinct into her.

The other two were Gittarackur and Hanzo. The needle guy had a scary impassive feeling that immediately made her want to stay as far from him as possible. It was like he didn’t care if he was killing a bug or a human. Hanzo was dangerous too but not to the extent the other two were. Staying in the room almost made her wish they had stayed inside the tower for a bit longer.

Still, they got to eat food and water and rest. The five stayed close by, ignoring others if they could. They talked and laughed, even with then uneasy tension in the room. With how cheery they were, she even saw Hanzo joining in a bit. Gon’s charisma pulled him in too, though in his defense, he put a valiant effort to stop it. The whole thing was amusing beyond measure though Killua kept looking grumpy.

Kaname found herself sitting with Killua more often. She told him stories about getting weird pets, or weird moments in her life, like one where she found a poisonous snake coiled up beside her, soaking up her body heat. She ended up taking her as a pet for a few days before she bit another person and she had to release her into the wilderness. The person survived only because one of his friends could identify the snake.

Or the time she got saved by dolphins when she was thrown overboard by her ‘guardian’.

Gon would tell her about the time he met Kite and he had to save him from a bear, Gon had taken in the cub and cared for him until he had to leave for the Hunter Exam. She was just relieved no one had anything against Kite, and Gon and she bonded over experiences with Kite. She didn’t dare bring up Ging, and she was glad Gon didn’t ask.

It was fun. But she couldn’t shake off Gitterackur’s glare or Hisoka’s interest in her. She had just put herself in both of their radar for some reason or other. Maybe she had been wrong initially. She wouldn’t get her friends killed, _they_ would get _her_ killed.

After 72 hours passed, the number of remaining contestants was in the twenties.

The next part of the test was explained and she immediately hid her own badge. Her number was 198 and she had no idea who that was. Her gut told her it was one of the three brothers. They were easy targets so she planned on getting them soon and running around or hiding it out. If not she had to take a few extras.

As long as she stayed away from Gitterackur, she’d be safe. Every inch of her body kept screaming to get away from him. She might have pissed him off for some reason.

In the boat to Zevil Island, she found Killua and Gon sitting together and sat in front of them. Putting her chin on her palm and elbow on her folded knee, she looked at them cheerfully.

“What are you guys talking about?” She smiled at them. Gon seemed excited but scared and Killua looked worried.

“Who did you get?” Killua asked immediately. Her smile widened.

“It’s not you guys.” She still took out her tag and showed them. “198.”

“Huh. I got 199. Do you know who that is?” She thought for a while, it was probably one of the brothers too.

“Probably one of the three brothers. They’re weak but if you get them, take mine off their hands too. I’ll find you sometime.” Killua smirked back.

“What, you want me to protect you?” She looked at him, thinking back on Gittarackur.

“Or something.” She tucked her hair behind her ear. “I’ll tell you later."

Killua looked surprised for a moment before giving in.

“So who did you get?” She looked at Gon, who seemed to be looking between them both with slight surprise. Did they say something weird?

“Hisoka.” Her eyes widened with surprise before calming down. She sighed in relief.

“At least Hisoka will let you live. Thank god it’s not Gitterackur. I would have to stop you then.” Gon looked surprised at her response. “I mean, I heard about Hisoka. He let you live and called you ‘unripe fruit’, right? Which means he won’t kill you until you become strong enough. It’s probably the safest you can be in Hisoka’s dictionary right now. He might even go out of his way to keep you safe if you prove yourself to him.”

“You sound like you know him.” Killua said with a cocked head. She laughed nervously.

“Uh. No offense, but your dad kinda reminds me of Hisoka.” She nodded to Gon. “Not at the crazy bloodthirsty part, but the ‘prove yourself worthy’ part.” Gon didn’t say much after that, just nodded then went back to his mental preparation.

She stayed beside them, lazily gazing at the sky. Maybe Gon wanted to know about Ging when he met him? Gon didn’t exactly ask questions about his dad, and she doubted he was actually bothered by the seriousness of having actual trained hunters out for their ass. She didn’t know all that much about Ging anyway.

They reached the island after some time and were told to enter the island after an interval of 2 minutes.

When she entered the forest, she thought to wait for the brothers, or maybe Killua. Her instincts told her being near Killua was safe, even from Gitterackur. He wouldn’t attack her if she was with Killua. Possibly.

By the time four minutes were up, she had thought up twelve scenarios, three of which were of Gitterackur being a jilter lover, or maybe Killua seduced him and he was a pedo or Killua was his latest target and she was spending a lot of time with him. Was he jealous? Maybe, he planned to kill Killua? She dismissed that thought immediately.

He was certainly skilled. Maybe he was Killua’s teacher there to keep an eye on him? But wouldn’t that mean he was connected to the Zoldycks? She kept that idea as a ‘maybe’.

Zoldycks were a strange bunch. In the end she decided not to go with Killua, she might follow around the brothers later though.

-x-

Wandering around the island, she found the island pretty small. In her fastest, she could cover the breadth of the island in less than an hour and if she walked, she could do the same in about a day or two. The forest was lush and thick. The bloodcrazy butterflies were common on the island, probably due to the tropical climate.

She had encountered one man, and had promptly taken the badge from him after defeating him. He was a decent fighter, she supposed, but pathetic when compared to herself. She spent the first night awake, and the second night asleep. Other than a snake, nothing bothered her.

She was on her third day on Zevil Island, and she had taken the initiative to start searching for badges. She didn’t even _see_ another person, much to her dismay. She wanted to get the Hunter license that year. She didn’t want to wait for the next year! That was ages away.

The next day, a badge landed on her lap like it was a god given gift. She looked at the badge number ‘197’ and cursed Killua in her mind. He had done something with prey’s badge. She could practically imagine him laughing at her. She shouldn’t have trusted him with her prey’s badge number!

Her clenched her fist and tried really, really hard not to hit herself with it. She should have gone after her prey instead of relaxing. She sighed heavily.

Either way, she just needed one more po-

She jerked back just in time for a card to miss her neck.

“Mm. I was wondering when I would get to test you, little fruit.” Her eyes widened and she instinctively backed away.

Hisoka looked at her with lidded eyes, a card in his hand, looking for all the world, that he would rather not be anywhere else.

“Hisoka.” She had to tamper down her uncontrolled smirk and the fear coursing through her body. Adrenaline rushed through her body and the eye hidden by her hair, burned.

There was barely anything to show that he would move before he did. It was like he went from stillness to motion in a single move. The card sliced through her hair and cut a line across her cheek. Her eyes went to Hisoka’s wound, wondering if she could take advantage of it.

Suddenly, Hisoka was in front of her and she had to duck and weave randomly to get farther. If she used her ability now, she would need to rest and she still didn’t have her last point. She couldn’t sacrifice her points and she had no desire to find Killua when she wasn’t even sure if he had her prey’s badge.

Her hands darted to her boots where she kept her easily reachable, rarely used blade. In the moment between two movements, she reached for her blade and took it out. It was as long as her forearm and absolutely straight. A chokuto, a man called it, but she wasn’t sure. It wasn’t as long as an actual sword because she didn’t have training with one.

Kite had told her to use something that gave her a little reach. She was just glad she had any weapon at all. Without her ability, she wasn’t as good but she could at least get rid of her limiters.

In a fluid motion, she used a backhanded grip and slashed at Hisoka. She darting about. She didn’t want to be caught by Hisoka’s cards. Those were lethal.

He kept moving away from her attacks but with every time she came closer and got used to his attacks, he could get this _disgustingly_ excited look on his face-

She shuddered.

Kaname tightened her grip on her hybrid sword and she reached out for the other. If he got serious, she was dead. The only chance she had was to attack with all she had.

“I never realized you had such an interesting ability.” She narrowed her eyes before charging yet again. She relied entirely on her reflexes to get out of the way of thrown cards and attacked with both her blades. Sweeping across the space he stood half a second before she increased her speed. She had fought Kite like that.

Her only opponent was Hisoka and she could make use of the area to attack him. Her eye burned brighter and she saw clearly. One of her blades struck a card, and shattered, and the other slashed against his cheek just barely scoring a cut. She jumped away to disengage, cursing at her blade, making sure she didn’t get cut by Hisoka’s cards-

With a cut off gasp, she tripped backwards, stumbling away before falling on her ass. Her left hand released the knife to catch the bark of tree but she just ended up without her weapons.

She looked wide eyed at Hisoka, who had been looking like he was going to fall to his bloodlust but was staring at her with surprise and amusement clear in his eyes. Her cheeks burnt a bright red and she was still sitting on the ground-

She used the bark to stand up before stumbling again because she couldn’t put too much pressure on one of her ankles. Say what.

She groaned in embarrassment and annoyance, and before she knew it Hisoka was laughing. At her.

“How amusing. Another Kurata brat.” She stiffened and hoped the redness had left her eye already.

“I-I’m no-”

“Only the Kurata blood can activate or deactivate those eyes, even if you transplanted them.” Her eye twitched. Wait. She looked at him, eyes wide with surprise and hope.

“Another?” Hisoka covered his smirk with a card. She glared at him. “What do you know.”

She went tripping back, avoiding a lethal cut from his card.

“You pass.” He looked at her with a smirk that seemed similar, yet different from the way he looked at Gon. “I’ll keep an eye on you.”

With just that, he walked into the shadows and she didn’t see him again no matter how much she looked. She spent her time in a slight daze. It was only by luck she stumbled across a sleeping girl with a badge on her lap.

The announcement shook her out of her daze and ran to her meeting point in 15 minutes. Her ankle was only bruised so a few days pretty much healed it up. She presented her badges and proceeded to wait 45 minutes. Killua had arrived before her and she greeted him with an annoyed glare.

“Did you throw my badge away?” Killua’s lips lifted in a smirk. “I knew it!” Before she could actually begin her tirade, he presented her with her prey’s badge. For a second she looked at the badge, surprised.

“You just never found me.” For the second time that week, she found a blush creeping up her cheeks.

“O-oh. Sorry. I found the badge number 198 so I thought you threw mine away too. I just went ahead and collected three.” She shot a glare at Hisoka. “Kind of.” She whispered under her breath.

“Did you fight Hisoka?” She scrunched up her nose. It was one of her most embarrassing moments. She looked at Killua shyly through her hair.

“No?” Killua didn’t fall for her act. She unconsciously pouted at his raised brow.

“I didn’t.” She looked away.

“Then why were you-”

“Okay fine!” She half-yelled. The other contestants looked at her and she scratched her cheek, looking away from them. “I did. It was-”

A blush crept up her cheeks.

“It ended kind of embarrassingly.” She unconsciously rolled her healing ankle, drawing Killua’s attention to it. Killua snickered.

“Did you trip?” She bit her lip and nodded.  Killua started laughing and she couldn’t stop her face from turning her face tomato red.

“It’s not funny!” It was. But she didn’t want to say that to Killua! She bore his laughter for 10 more seconds before her patience snapped.

“You-” She made a frustrated sound and jumped on him, she had forgotten that she still didn’t have her limiters on and so she jumped faster than Killua anticipated and to both their surprise they crashed and fell. A few of the contestants made to help them but they had rolled down towards the beach.

After a few seconds of struggling with each other, they stopped moving right as they reached the beach. The sand increased traction and slowed them. She pulled away and sat on his waist. For a second, they just looked at each other before both burst into laughter.

She didn’t even remember what they had been talking about, they just laughed and each time they looked at the other seemed to set them off. It felt hilarious for some reason. A bubbly feeling seemed come over her and she couldn’t stop her lips from spreading into a smile.

“Killua? Kaname? What are you guy doing down there?”

Kaname and Killua shared a smile at Gon’s voice. She got up and extended a hand to help him up. He looked slightly surprised before accepting her hand.

“Come on! Let’s go meet up with Gon.” Killua nodded in agreement.

“Yeah.”

Whatever awkwardness they seemed to have had disappeared, and she couldn’t help but be glad about that. Killua was a friend now. No matter how troublesome her new friends might be, she would fight tooth and nail for them.

She really was happy with them. She looked at the sea sparkling in the light of the sun and smiled.

_Kite, you really don’t need to worry about me anymore._

Then Gon called for her again and Killua called out an impatient “come on, hurry up!” and she couldn’t spare time to think of people past when she had people waiting for her.


End file.
